The UK’s BAE Systems have unveiled footage of the unmanned combat drone, Taranis, on its maiden flight. While it hails the drone - capable of self-selecting targets - as “inspiration for nation,” activists are urging to ban the use of its auto-kill mode.

Defense companies are keen for their new arms and hardware to
look appealing to the public, as attested by a series of clips
uploaded to BAE Systems’ YouTube channel on Wednesday.

Named “Taranis” after the Celtic god of thunder, a new
British unmanned aerial combat vehicle was displayed in its full
glory in a short test-flight filmed last year.

The 8-ton, 11-meter long UACV, with a wing span of about 9
meters, is seen taking off, doing some simple maneuvers and then
landing. A follow-up video with computer generated graphics and
dramatic music then presented the aircraft as “world leading
technology,” “the most advanced air system
conceived, designed and built in the UK,” and even an
“inspiration for a nation.”

BAE Systems Managing Director, Chris Boardman, can be seen saying
that the vehicle upholds the UK’s status of leader in
“aerospace capability.”

Taranis is a semi-autonomous drone designed to carry out
intercontinental flights and lethal strikes against both aerial
and ground targets. The project, which has so far cost 185
million pounds ($300 million), is jointly funded by the UK
Ministry of Defense and companies like Rolls Royce and General
Electric.

What has become a target of public debate in particular, ever
since the drone’s prototype was unveiled in 2010, is its stated
capability of “deep target attacks” by means of its
“fully autonomous intelligent system.”

This rang warning bells among some activists, who have raised
questions about whether the robotic planes will be authorized to
choose and destroy targets on their own, while apparently not
having the ability to tell combatants and civilians apart.

Such a capability, which is also said to be included in drones
like the American X-47B and the French Neuron, has opened up
tempting new horizons for waging war for the military, but has
also brought the issue of “killer robots” under the
spotlight of international scrutiny.

A group of activists led by such figures as Nobel Peace
Prize-winner, Jody Williams, have campaigned for the law on
future robotic warfare to be pre-emptively discussed in Geneva,
calling to ban any lethal use of drones without a pilot involved.

“Killer robots are weapons that would make drones look
primitive. At least with the drone, there is a human being who
looks at the computer screen, sees the target and pushes the
buttons to fire the missiles and kill. Various militaries are
doing research on weapons that would have no human being involved
in the targeting and killing of human beings. We found that
shocking and horrifying that people are really thinking that it
is OK to give the right to target and kill human beings to
machines,” Williams told RT.

“It would take the robot to be programmed, but once it was
set free, it would proceed to make the targeting and kill
decisions unless our campaign to stop the killer robots is able
to make certain that human beings have to be involved
meaningfully in the kill decision,” she added, calling for a
definition of who would bear responsibility in the event of any
robotic machines running amok by accident, or by an attack from
hackers.

According to Williams, a meeting on “killer robots” is scheduled
to take place in Geneva in May, in which world governments will
participate under the umbrella of the United Nations’
Conventional Weapons convention.

It is, however, unclear if the governments already involved in
“drone wars” will be willing to give up their potential
capabilities. According to anti-war activist, Michael Raddie,
drone warfare is a win-win situation in that it subsidizes the
military industrial complex and makes overseas conflicts more
“popular” at home.

“It becomes very easy to sell a war based on drones to the
domestic audience, because there’s no soldiers, there’s no
airmen, pilots putting their lives at risk. This makes drone
warfare fairly acceptable to most countries, it’s fairly popular
in the US… it’s becoming popular in the UK,” Raddie told RT.